The Majella National Park: An Aspiring UNESCO Geopark

Abstract

Majella National Park is located in the central Apennines (Italy), in a vast mountainous area of about 740 km 2. Owing to the complex geological history of the Majella Massif and surrounding areas, it features many different landforms. Woodlands rich in water characterize the wide tectonic depression of Caramanico, which separates the rounded gentle profile of the Majella to the east from the impervious steep slope of the Morrone Mt. to the west. Bare pitted highlands, like lunar landforms, characterize the top of the Majella (i.e., Femmina Morta Valley) shaped by flowing ice that long ago covered the higher parts of the massif. Sedimentary structures and fossil content recovered in carbonates attest to a long period of sedimentation in warm, shallow-marine environments, revealing that the Majella and the surrounding carbonate mountains looked, approximately from 140 to 7 Ma, like the present-day Bahamas and Persian Gulf. The Park hosts at least 95 geosites, some of which (22) are well-known in the international literature because of their scientific relevance. In addition, its natural and cultural wealth, deeply fused together with geoheritage, preserves several features of national and world rarity. Therefore, the Park Authority decided to put forward its territory as a candidate to become part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geoparks Network.

The “Fan of the Terre Peligne”: Integrated Enhancement and Valorization of the Archeological and Geological Heritage of an Inner-Mountain Area (Abruzzo, Central Apennines, Italy)

“…The selection of the path and the main stop sites was qualitatively based on three main criteria similar for archeology and geology: (i) location and spatial connection along the Terre Peligne area; (ii) site type and origin, and (iii) temporal distribution in the geological/archeological time scale [28,[40][41][42]. Even if at this stage we did not run a quantitative assessment of the sites [20], this approach is in agreement with what has been done in many cases for geosites evaluation (e.g., within Environmental Impact Assessment and territorial planning [11,12,43]; inventories of natural heritage sites, [31,35,40,44]; tourist promotion [14,45]; management of nature parks [4,6,22,46,47]).…”

“…The purpose of the study is in line with the stream of similar initiatives aimed at the knowledge, valorization, and fruition of the internal mountain areas. Just to remain within the Abruzzo region, among many others see the cases within the Parks of Majella and Velino-Sirente [6,85], or the case of the APSAT (Ambiente e Paesaggi dei Siti d'Altura Trentini) Project for the Trentino region [86] or the transhumance route in southern Italy [87] at international level (e.g., Egypt, Russia, Malta [7,88,89]).…”

“…The cultural heritage of Italy is one of the most noticeable in the world and is intimately related to the landscape and its long-lasting history. This is valued mainly in the major cities, popular localities, and national parks [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], while it is poorly developed in many minor villages, country areas, local natural reserves, and less-known areas, such as in the inner-mountain areas of the Apennines. However, there are many places, archeological sites, and landscapes that preserve the geological history of our country, as well as important stages of human history [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Geoparks and Education: UNESCO Global Geopark Villuercas-Ibores-Jara as a Case Study in Spain

“…UNESCO Global Geoparks Villuercas-Ibores-Jara contributes to this training by creating routes between geosites [85]. Several studies, such as that of Liberatoscioli et al [86] or Rivero et al [87], have shown that these infrastructures are positively valued by visitors because its help them to learn about geology. Moreover, geoparks need to incorporate new technologies in order to promote the learning-process amongst its visitors.…”

Water in Descriptions of Global Geoparks: Not Less Important than Geology?

“…On the one hand, their consideration is necessary to diversify conservation and recreation activities in geoparks while on the other hand, these 'auxiliary' natural elements have to be protected from excessive exploitation of geological heritage resource. For instance, water resources have become the subject of analysis in the Langkawi geopark in Malaysia [17], the Majella geopark in Italy [18], and the Luoping Biota geopark in China [19]. More generally, it is possible to state that geoparks represent geological heritage landscapes (sensu [20]), i.e., landscapes dominated by unique geological features, but not restricted to them.…”